Hi everyone!
I wasn't super active on the boards, but I lurked a lot in order to find reviews and such on a lot of my vendors. Figured this might help some other PGH brides out
I don't check The Knot often, but if you have any specific questions, def feel free to PM me.
Our wedding day was near perfect, and I could not have done it without the help of a LOT of amazing vendors. Please consider all of them - they are true professionals and will work their asses off to make sure your day runs smoothly. This will be super long because I really loved all my vendors and I want to do them justice!
Venue: The Barn at Fallingwater - A
This was probably the hardest decision, and our biggest. Fallingwater is SUCH a cool landmark and my husband loved the idea of getting married in the woods, since we're both pretty outdoors-y and love natural settings. I'll be the first to admit that the Barn is not super huge (honest max of 154 people, and it will be very tight with that), and that caused more than a few headaches, but it worked out in the end even if it was a little cramped (we had 148).
The coordinator Kate is such a sweetheart and she really went above and beyond on the wedding weekend to help us out in every way that she could; at one point a few hours before the ceremony, I found her sitting on the porch of the farmhouse finishing one of my ridiculous DIY projects! How nice of her. She also let us come visit plenty of times. I will also add that Kate that she is a little scatterbrained and was kind of hard to get a hold of in the months leading up to the wedding. I can see why, with how much time she puts into the events on the day of.
The only one issue we had was in regards to the catering, that flared up 6 days before the wedding. It was basically resolved quickly but not before making me really upset. Let's just say that if you are going to go with this venue, be aware that there is a sliding royalty fee to your whole catering bill if you do not go with one of their preferred caterers. While this might be obvious, Kate never mentioned it to us in the 18 months of planning until 9 days before the event. Not fun.
Overall, this was a memorable venue that wasn't too much out of our price range. It is comparable to most that you find in the city. I did do a LOT of work to amp up the "wow" factor, but that is because I am a perfectionist. It is also very DIY in the sense that you will bring in almost all of your vendors; it is not a one-stop-shop. But I liked that
Photography: Caitlin Thomas Photography - A+++
I know that Caitlin is well loved on these boards, and for good reason. She was the very first vendor we booked after our engagement, and I couldn't have been any happier with her. She is an absolute gem. She got married last year so she really understands what is going through your head through the whole process, all the way down to keeping me calm the day of when running late with hair and makeup. We had both our engagement photos (
in the Strip Dist) and
wedding photos with her, and I also did an awesome boudoir shoot with her for a surprise for my husband on the wedding morning. Which he loved, btw. But I digress. Her second shooter/best friend Sam is also amazing. The two make you feel totally comfortable and truly like you are just hanging out with some friends, while getting a million photos taken. Plus they are just damn good at what they do and I still can't stop looking at the photos. Caity's husband Jim was also second/third shooting with her, and my husband said he was great to have around, but I believe Jim is stepping out of that into a new career.
Really though the best part about working with her is that I legitimately feel like gained a friend out of this, and I hope to still catch up with her soon!
Floral: greenSinner - A+++
My other very favorite vendor. Jimmy Lohr is a trip, a floral genius, and an all around great guy. He worked with us a LOT on our budget to make sure we could get amazing flowers (and even some of those $$$$$ peonies) at a decent price. He also came down to the Barn from Lawrenceville the day prior to help set up, and did he EVER transform the Barn into something special. He has a million and a half ideas, all crazier than the next, but whatever he comes out with looks like gold. He will also tell you when things are bad ideas, since he's done so many weddings, and that was something I greatly appreciated since most people won't tell a bride straight. My advice if you are going with him - step back and let him do his thing! He specializes in local, natural florals and does it so well -- don't request flowers that all need to be flown in from all over the world! Plus that drives him nuts.
Catering/Day of Coordination: JPC Event Group - B
Oh, JPC. I was really, really excited to work with them because I know they are true catering professionals, but our entire experience with them just fell short of my expectations. Overall, I'd say on the day after the wedding that it all was just fabulous, but the further I get from the day the more I hear about the small issues that came up and nearly all of them come back onto JPC.
First, when we initially met with the company, we were working with their main coordinator Allyson. She was not the most personable person I've ever met, and quite honest made my husband feel unwelcome and inferior, like we weren't "good enough" to work with them. He was totally against using their services, but I talked him into it based on a very good reputation/menu and great food. Allyson left the company a few months after our initial tasting and contract signing.
So then we were in touch with their event coordinator, Paisley. She was wonderful, SUPER responsive (to like the point that I would think of something at 11 pm, shoot off an email just so I wouldn't forget, and she would still answer me that night as best she could), and very very helpful. Based on working with her, we were a lot happier and felt much better about the company and decided to go with day-of coordination as well, because we thought she would be our day of person. At this point, the big issue was doing a walk through. JPC and Kate at the Barn had a really hard time figuring out schedule to do the walk through, and although they had over a year (!) to do this, they never got around to it until about 10 days before the wedding.
Then I was contacted by Jen, who ended up being our actual Day-of coordinator (see how confusing this got? I got confused too, and all the shuffling around gave me the impression that we weren't important enough to be a high priority). Jen was really nice and on top of things, but she didn't call me until about 4 days before the wedding to discuss all the details. And by that point, things were so frazzled I felt like I lost focus and some small details definitely fell through the cracks.
Then we have the actual wedding day. Firstly, they were about 45 minutes late (according to my husband), and that threw his day off entirely since he had to run around and take care of a lot of stuff he expected their staff to do (like filling empty wine bottles for service at the dinner tables, etc). I was getting ready so I can't attest to that much. Jen was amazing for me to work with, she was on top of it all and made sure the day ran according to plan. So glad I had her, but again, I still wish she had gotten in touch with me before the week-of craziness so that I could have really solidified details. For example, the processional music got messed up because we never wrote it down. Small hiccup, NBD really, but something that could have been avoided. She also made sure we got to eat a little!
Food was good, some great some meh. Appetizers were wonderful, everyone raved about the artisan cheese display, and we also had the mac and cheese bites, margherita flatbread, and pulled pork mini tacos. For dinner we went with three stations - the pasta, pittsburgh, and skewer. Pasta and pittsburgh were a hit, especially the mini Primanti-style sandwiches. The skewers were a disappointment, most being super dry and overcooked. I was bummed about this.
Finally (I promise), the real big issue was the BARTENDERS. These guys, while super nice and personable, were just not good. They were disorganized and just bad at tending bar. They didn't know how to make anything other than a spirit+soda/juice, like my cousin asked for a cosmo and the guy had to ask what went in it. They also knew nothing about wine -- I drank a sauvignon blanc most of the night until they told me they were out. Fine, until we get home and realize there was still an ENTIRE CASE left. That is 9 bottles. But the biggest gripe with them, was that they did not cool down additional beer as the night went on. We initially put everything in the fridge or on ice that could fit, with the expectation that it would be continually refilled through the night to keep things cold. Nope, guests were told around 10:15 (last call being 10:40) that all the beer was gone, but we were left with over 10 additional cases of warm beer at the end of the night. Again, not the biggest of deals, but when all combined together it made for a poor bar experience.
As far as JPC goes, I feel like in the end I really WANTED to like them more than our experience provided.
(more vendors coming in a second post below)